By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Though Jewish families continue to leave their homes in France, the country’s ambassador to the United States says that anti-Semitism is not as big a problem as the media has made it out to be.
Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, who has held his post since December 2002, came to Seattle on June 28 to speak to a gathering hosted by the American Jewish Committee.
Levitte addressed several problems affecting his country’s Jewish community, most notably what has been considered to be a rise in violent crimes against Jews. He explained the situation statistically: of the more than 60 million people in France, 700,000 are Jewish and four to five million are Muslim. Approximately 95 percent of the Muslim population is considered secular. The other 5 percent, however, are where Levitte said the problems lie.
“The second generation of the Muslim population has a real problem with integration in the social fabric of French society,” Levitte said.
He said most of that population, which comes from North African countries like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, are second-generation French but often live in wretched conditions. When the younger men, many of whom are jobless, stay at home and watch Al Jazeera on their satellite dishes, that’s where trouble begins.
“This is part of the problem and this is where we have anti-Semitic acts,” he said.
He noted that in many of these neighborhoods, even the police and firemen are afraid to enter because they fear being attacked.
Though Levette said that the statistics mark a decline in attacks on Jews, news reports and anecdotal evidence show that may not be the case.
Late last year, an arson attack on a Jewish school in a Paris suburb brought about rebukes from the highest levels of government. Yet at the same time, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has reported that parents are fearful because of threats and attacks on Jewish students at some of the public schools. One attendee at Levette’s presentation said several French Jews she knows are considering leaving because they are growing tired of living in fear.
A poll by Bar-Ilan university last year found that 6 percent of French Jews planned to leave the country to move to Israel, while another 36 percent were seriously considering it. Though many have moved already, Levette said more have moved to the U.S. and Canada than to Israel.
He also said he believes there is no more anti-Semitism in France than in the United States, it is just manifested in different ways.
“I think there is a wave of acts against Jews by the second generation of Muslims,” he said, but asserted there is no institutionalized anti-Semitism in his country.
He also noted that the government has taken steps to address the problem. This includes a mandate for judges to double the sentence on any act of violence considered to be anti-Semitic or racist. Additionally, the French government offers cultural education, and special security has been set up in front of Jewish buildings and synagogues.
For Levette, the topic of anti-Semitism hits close to home. His paternal grandparents were Jewish, and immigrated to Paris from Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. They were sent to Auschwitz, but his father and uncle fought in the resistance, helping young Jewish children to survive with French families. Levette’s father also represented the AJCommittee in France for 50 years.
“That’s why I’m so passionate when France is being accused of being an anti-Semitic country,” he said, and added that many French families protected Jews during World War II, even as the government folded to the Nazis.
Levette addressed a controversial issue that arose recently in his country – the banning of headwear and religious insignias in the public schools.
Following centuries of fighting between Catholics and Protestants, the law banning such garb was actually enacted 1905, when France built a strict separation between church and state. The law included a ban on religious programs, teaching, or presence in the public schools.
“It’s been a big debate for months,” Levette said. “A small minority [of Muslims] was insisting on religious insignia. Two thousand girls in our schools were wearing the veils.” The parents of these girls demanded separate classrooms as well as head covering for all female students. “Co-education is part of our society,” said Levette. Representatives from major religious groups unanimously reaffirm the law to prohibit religious insignia in public schools.
Private schools are a different matter. Levette said one-third of school-age children currently attend private institutions. Many of these schools are religious in nature – including for Jewish and Muslim children – and religious garb is permitted there.